The State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), enacted in August, 1997, provided new incentives for states to extend public health insurance coverage to low-income uninsured children.  The federal government offered states a higher federal match and greater flexibility to design their programs than they enjoyed under Medicaid.
	States took advantage of this new opportunity.  All states and the District of Columbia expanded coverage under SCHIP.  Many states took advantage of the option to develop separate non-Medicaid programs.  This allowed states to alter the benefit package, impose premiums and co-payments, and implement waiting periods to prevent people from replacing private coverage with public coverage (crowd-out).
	This research is part of a comprehensive evaluation of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program primarily funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation as part of the Urban Institute’s Assessing the New Federalism project.  Additional financial support came from The Annie E. Casey Foundation, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, The McKnight Foundation, The Commonwealth Fund, the Stuart Foundation, the Weingart Foundation, The Fund for New Jersey, The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, and The Rockefeller Foundation.